A rookie and costly mistake

[GoingFishing]

Well ill start with the highlight of the day - my rookie mistake.

I recently started using 80 pound mono leader for my bottom bashing paternoster rig. The hooks and loop come off more on an angle than hang low and I find that i spend far less time undoing tangles. Addditionally most of my target species dont seem to mind it. The mono leader is tied to a 30 pound mono main line.  Today we were drifting the northern side of long reef in about 30m of water when i got a solid take on my bonito strip bait. Initially thought it might be a banjo shark but i soon felt some headshakes which gave it away as a solid flatty.

Got him to the surface and for some reason, against all normal practise that i follow, in the spur of the moment i tried to lift him into the boat. This beasty was about 65cm and was goingn back into thr drink anyway but when i tried to lift him into the boat the knot snapped at the mainline. ( no surprised there right!!!) I jumped for the net so i could get him back and remove the hooks and heavy lead which would be hangin off his head and probably result in his demise. In the mad rush to grab the net the rod and reel ended up in the water !!!!!! I ended up losing all three to the ocean. Never a good day when u lose your gear overboard.

Id like to say i learnt a valuable lesson but feel thats not really the right statement to make as i really do know better, im sure there is a lesson there to be learnt.

Anyway, the day wasnt all bad news. Dad and I bothed bagged out on flathead today, we also found 3 nice flounder and a solid tarwhine. Also got a rat king at long reef which was released, he took a bonito strip as it was coming up ! Gave a good account of himself. 

Most of the fish were caught inbetween 30 and 40m of water today on fish strips and prawns.

hope everyone else got into a few today and thanks for reading

Sam

 

[Rah]

Spewing about the overboard gear but great haul of fatties there. 

Well done getting amongst it. 

 

Cheers

Tara 

[Yowie]

Tying mono to mono with vastly different sizes (30 to 80 pound) is very difficult. Much better to use a black swivel to join the lines.

If I bottom bash for flatties outside, I use 20 pound mono and tie on 20 toughened mono (more resistant to abrasion of most fish, except jackets) joined by a black swivel. 2 droppers and a snapper sinker on the bottom. Have pulled out a variety of fish on the rig, except for toothy critters like jackets and sharks.

I would drop the 80 pound leader to 40m pound, unless you want it for a reason. You can lift the fish with the heavier trace, but I would be grabbing the trace line, not the main line, to lift on board.

Edited April 22, 2017 by Yowie

[GoingFishing]

17 minutes ago, Rah said:

Spewing about the overboard gear but great haul of fatties there. 

Well done getting amongst it. 

 

Cheers

Tara 

Thanks Tara. My favourite thing to do is have flathead fresh on the same day it was caught. We just had fresh flathead fillets for dinner with baked eggplant, garlic and chips.... ??

9 minutes ago, Yowie said:

Tying mono to mono with vastly different sizes (30 to 80 pound) is very difficult. Much better to use a black swivel to join the lines.

If I bottom bash for flatties outside, I use 20 pound mono and tie on 20 toughened mono (more resistant to abrasion of most fish, except jackets) joined by a black swivel. 2 droppers and a snapper sinker on the bottom. Have pulled out a variety of fish on the rig, except for toothy critters like jackets and sharks.

I would drop the 80 pound leader to 40m pound, unless you want it for a reason. You can lift the fish with the heavier trace, but I would be grabbing the trace line, not the main line, to lift on board.

Thanks for the tip Yowie. I used to do that but kept losing my rod tips when inexperienced friends and my dad (his eyes arent the best) wind the line all the way up into the tip. Tried rubber stoppers above the swivel and that helped but still ended up losing some tips. 

[Guest Guest123456789]

Congratulations on the catch and commiserations on the losses.

You shouldn't get tangles even on light lines if the dropper loops are short (I go about three inches) and you use the dropper loop knot 

http://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/dropper-loop

i use the max three hooks in current and almost never have problems. Like you I like strip baits.

I've had the problem with swivels as well. The solution is I no longer loan rods to anyone (family especially).

[GoingFishing]

3 hours ago, flatheadluke said:

Congratulations on the catch and commiserations on the losses.

You shouldn't get tangles even on light lines if the dropper loops are short (I go about three inches) and you use the dropper loop knot 

http://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/dropper-loop

i use the max three hooks in current and almost never have problems. Like you I like strip baits.

I've had the problem with swivels as well. The solution is I no longer loan rods to anyone (family especially).

Thanks Luke i will give it a try. I use relatively large baits so i find when i use lighter line the baits spin on the way up and i have to "unwind" the loop/hook/bait from the mainline everytime i bring the line to check/renew the bait. 

[big Neil]

Your report was enjoyable to read Sam, although I hate reading about lost gear. Seems that you made up for it with the other decent catches and subsequent meals...so not all bad news. Cheers mate, sure beats working. BN

[Yowie]

11 hours ago, GoingFishing said:

I use relatively large baits so i find when i use lighter line the baits spin on the way up

Depends how you hook up the baits. I use longer strips and only hook through once for tougher baits, twice for softer baits. The flatties, and other fish when drifting, will grab the bait and hook up, even with a 10 to 12 cm bait only hooked through once at one end. If you bunch up a bait on a hook several times, this is what can cause spinning of the bait and line.